Searching the research literature

Date

14 July 2009

Topics
journals
references

Most students seem to go to Google first. This is not a good strategy. Google Scholar is much better as it filters out all the junk. Scopus is another engine that aims to do a similar thing. It is better organized but not so complete. ISI WOK is also not as complete as Google Scholar but is particularly good at tracking citations.

If you track down something on Google scholar, but are at home and so do not have access to the paper, you can use Monash. Just drag the previous link to your bookmarks. When you are on the page of a paper you want, click the link and it will ask for your usual Monash username/password, after which you should be able to access the paper.

Sometimes, a more restrictive search is needed. Try one of these:

Finally, if you’ve still had no luck, then try Google.

If you know the paper you are after, it is often better to go through the Monash library.

Notes: